Friday, 26 October 2012

"Book Week Scotland will be a national week-long celebration of reading, delivered on behalf of Creative Scotland by Scottish Book Trust, the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland. Scottish Book Trust will work with authors, workplaces, libraries and schools across the nation to deliver a packed programme of free projects and events, bringing Scots of all ages and from all walks of life together to celebrate books and reading.

Running in support of the first ever Book Week Scotland– which runs from 26th November to 2nd December 2012 – the Scottish Book Trust are forming a band of special book lovers who will be at hand to recommend and advise (via email and Twitter) those who seek ‘superhuman’ literary guidance.

The League of Extraordinary Booklovers is a group of people from all walks of life who love books and reading, who are volunteering to share their passion and expert knowledge with readers across the nation during the first Book Week Scotland (26 November – 2 December 2012)."

You can find the entire list of assorted superheroes on their website here and you will find my name on the list. I'm thrilled and honoured to have been chosen. I feel all superhero powerful...

Now I know this event is taking place in Scotland, but please don't let that deter you - you can be a superhero too! The world can never have enough book-wielding, word-weaving, story-reading superheroes. So grab your capes and get out there - get sharing your love of books!

Monday, 22 October 2012

“Get
a pen and paper (or pull up a blank word file on your computer) and
compile a lit of songs which remind you how loved you are and/or remind
you that you are worth loving.

They should be songs that mean something to you and my advice is to aim for about 10-12 songs.

Once you have written your list or lists set about finding and obtaining those songs.

Once
you have them all, burn yourself a CD or set up a playlist on your
music player, that you can use any time you are feeling down or lacking
in self-worth and need some encouragement.

And how
about sharing the fact that you have taken up this challenge on your
blog and sharing your list with others. You can even share why certain
songs mean so much to you. Oh and feel free to link back here so that I
can check out your songs too.”

I must admit... I already have some lists on YouTube of favourite songs I listen to when I'm writing (always instrumental - I can't write with other words in my head!) or just to relax/enjoy, but a list of songs to remind me I'm loved or worth loving? wow... that's a whole new concept for me! I like it a lot. :-)

So here are my choices. I love all of them, but I'm putting the one I want to share the lyrics of as my number 10.

This is a song for every girl who'sEver been through somethingShe thought she couldn't make it throughI sing these words becauseI was that girl tooWanting something better than thisBut who do I turn to?Now we're moving from the darkness into the lightThis is the defining moment of our lives'Cause you're beautiful like a flowerMore valuable than a diamondYou are powerful like a fireYou can heal the world with your mindThere is nothing in the world that you cannot doWhen you believe in you, who are beautifulYeah you, who are brilliantYeah you, who are powerfulYeah you, who are resilientThis is a song for every girl whoFeels that she is not special'Cause she don't look like a supermodel Coke bottleThe next time the radio tells you to shake your moneymakerShake your head and tell them, tell them you're a leaderNow we're moving from the darkness into the lightThis is the defining moment of our lives'Cause you're beautiful like a flowerMore valuable than a diamondYou are powerful like a fireYou can heal the world with your mindThere is nothing in the world that you cannot doWhen you believe in you, who are beautifulYeah you, who are brilliantYeah you, who are powerfulYeah you, who are resilientYeah you, who are beautifulYeah you, who are brilliantYeah you, who are powerfulYeah you, who are resilientYeah you, this song is for youYeah you, this song is for youYeah you, this song is for youYeah you, yeah youYou are brilliant

Thursday, 11 October 2012

There are several sections you can walk through. There's a portion for the
bigger animals, like the Amur Tigers as well as two more heavily wooded
portions for the forest-loving creatures, like the Scottish wildcats, the wolves and forest reindeer.

The walk up to the animals was lovely, surrounded by heather with stunning views towards the mountains.

Then we went down through the trees and onto wooden walk ways to see the tigers.

The tigers are Amur tigers, from Russia. There is a female, Dominika, and a new young male, Marty. Dominika was born at the wildlife park. When we got to the viewing window one of the tigers was pacing up and down in front of the viewing window. I've never been that close to a Big Cat!

It was walking past so close my first photo was this...

And my next attempt this...

You could see the claw scratches (and smears of licking or paws?) on the glass, which was a bit disconcerting... but they are such beautiful animals that everyone there just stood and watched in awe. It completely ignored us...

One tiger sat meekly amongst the thistles watching as the other kept pacing past us humans. It did try to get the other's attention once or twice and was acknowledged with a sneering snarl.

Not often you see a tiger posed with thistles!

The photos don't do justice to their colours. They seemed to glow. William Blake was right when he wrote...

Well.. after I wrote my last update, that my computer seemed to be fixed, it crashed again. :-( And then started... and crashed again. This weekend Hubby went into full attack-seek-fix mode. He took the hard drive out, saved my stuff to his machine, then stripped my computer's brain bare. Now we're slowly putting everything back ad so far... it's working fine.

I have lost a few bits, I have all my emails (sent and inbox) shoved into one folder, but mostly everything is there and working. Now I just have the drab dull plod of reinstalling software, putting back everything to where it should be.

Hopefully I'll be able to finally put up my last photos from the wild life park, that I took in August!